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Saturday, April 29, 2017

Gifts of the Spirit - The Countenance of Christ

I have been listening to the Infinite Atonement on my Deseret Bookshelf Plus app. I am on my second book with my 30 Day Trial and I am loving it (get your free 30 day trial here). Anyway, I loved this quote by Hugh Nibley as he was discussing the gifts of the Spirit. By the way, I love Hugh Nibley, he is such a knowledgeable disciple of Christ.

"The gifts are not in evidence today, except one gift, which you notice the people ask for—the gift of healing. They ask for that with honest intent and with sincere hearts, and we really do have that gift. Because we are desperate and nobody else can help us, we ask with sincere hearts of our Lord. As for these other gifts, how often do we ask for them? How earnestly do we seek for them? We could have them if we did ask, but we don’t. “Well, who denies them?” Anyone who doesn’t ask for them. They are available to all for the asking, but one must ask with an honest heart, sincerely." http://publications.mi.byu.edu/fullscreen/?pub=1114&index=6

Where are you at in your pursuit of the gifts of the Spirit? This is an important question to ask yourself. Remember the importuning of Alma:

Alma 5:13-14

13 And behold, he preached the word unto your fathers, and a mighty change was also wrought in their hearts, and they humbled themselves and put their trust in the true and living God. And behold, they were faithful until the end; therefore they were saved.

14 And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts? https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/5?lang=eng

How do we experience this mighty change of heart, and have the image of Christ in our countenances? The answer lies in the asking for and receiving the gifts of the Spirit, imparted unto us through the grace of Christ. These gifts which are embodied in Christ and which constitute his countenance, refine our natures, thus making us more and more like Him and His countenance.

Moroni, the last book of Mormon prophet, closed the whole Book of Mormon with these words and promise:

Moroni 10:30-33

30 And again I would exhort you that ye would come unto Christ, and lay hold upon every good gift, and touch not the evil gift, nor the unclean thing.

31 And awake, and arise from the dust, O Jerusalem; yea, and put on thy beautiful garments, O daughter of Zion; and strengthen thy stakes and enlarge thy borders forever, that thou mayest no more be confounded, that the covenants of the Eternal Father which he hath made unto thee, O house of Israel, may be fulfilled.

32 Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.

33 And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot. https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/moro/10?lang=eng